"As we have been running an online news service for a number of years, we had a fairly clear and exacting idea of what we wanted from the next generation of the County Press website. Matrix took our concept and requirements and, smoothly and professionally, progressed them into a prestigious finished product of which we feel justified to be proud.
We have found the Matrix team excellent and highly approachable people to work with, and their technical expertise and ability to quickly come up with first-class solutions to sometimes difficult problems made the first phase of the site's development a genuine pleasure to work on.
Our ongoing working relationship, meanwhile, is allowing us to bring new ideas and innovation to the site and will enable the County Press to considerably enhance its web presence with the great confidence that Matrix give us, with their professional and committed attitude, in the pursuit of that process."
Robin Freeman – Isle of Wight County Press
Traffic Boost
The new County Press website has made two main improvements. The first is improved search engine performance through better constructed pages, and the second is that the site is simpley better designed and far more friendly to use. These improvements have had dramatic effects on the website's statistics.
The improved search engine performance has seen the number of visits treble, and that in combination with the improved usability has seen the page views across the site increase by ten times.
Hosting
Matrix have put in place a dedicated web server to host the Isle of Wight County Press website, and capable of supporting future plans for the site. The team at Matrix configured the server and manage this on an ongoing basis.
Design and Build
An important aspect of the project was to update the design of the website, to give it a more modern and clean feel that would stand the test of time.
Standards Compliance
It was important that the construction of the website was standards compliant. The new http://www.iwcp.co.uk/ website is built with valid XHTML and CSS, and is also Bobby approved for accessibility.
Content Management System (CMS)
The usability and reliability of the CMS for the site was vitally important, as this is a key tool for the editors of the County Press. The CMS is a state of the art application built using Microsoft’s .Net platform, which outputs standards compliant and highly search engine friendly web pages, and also gives a good levels of layout control for the homepage.
Consulting
Matrix are working closely with the web team at the IWCP to make the best possible use of the internet in the future. Effective use of the web will be vital in shaping the future of the newspaper.
Data Integration
Some sections of the newspaper are produced using systems that already produce data output. In each case Matrix has worked with the County Press, to integrate that data ito the website and make it available online.
Visit the Isle of Wight County Press Website
www.iwcp.co.uk